The "Internet" is the world's largest computer network. A network consists of two or more computers linked together to share resources. The Internet is actually a network of thousands of independent networks, containing several million "host" computers that provide information services. The word "Internet" was originally coined by William Gibson, in his science fiction novel titled "Nueromancer," to describe the realm and cultural dynamics of people and machines working within the confines of computer-based networks.
In recent years, the development of the world-wide web (WWW) has dramatically increased the number of Internet users. The world-wide web is a hypertext-based information service that makes collections of information available across the Internet. It allows web browser clients to access information from any accessible web server, in which connections from one server to the next are handled entirely as background operations-transparent to the user. The world-wide web supports multiple media types and can be used to invoke other software. The primary user interface is represented by embedded hypertext links rather than by menus. Thus, the world-wide web is a subset of the Internet which are connected to each other through links known as "hypertext links."
Information stored in world-wide web sites may be displayed in "web pages." A web page is a computer data file on a host operating a web server within a given domain name. The web page may comprise a single line or multiple pages of information and may include any message, name, word, sound, picture, or combination of these elements.
Web pages are created using a standard coding language called, "hypertext markup language" (HTML). HTML is a collection of platform-independent styles, or tags, which define the various components of the web page. HTML codes define the look of each web page and provide links to other web sites.
Users commonly view web pages using tools known as "browsers," which are software programs that allow users to access and search the Internet. Browsers may be graphical (such as Netscape Corporation's Navigator.TM. or Microsoft Corporation's Internet Explorer.TM.) or text based (such as Gopher). In a browser, information is displayed along with hypertext links which identify other world-wide web sites.
Typically, a user first accesses a web site using a known identification called the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the site. Once the first web page (or "home page") is displayed, the user can access additional web sites using hypertext links, without requiring knowledge of the URL identification for each of the additional web sites. A hypertext link is a link from one site on the Internet to a second site on the Internet. These are usually designated by highlighted text or a picture or some other indicator. By clicking on a hyperlink, users can seamlessly go from computer to computer (or between two locations on the same web page) without having to enter the host computer's URL. When the user selects one of the hypertext links with a pointing device, the browser accesses the web site associated with that hypertext link.
HTML documents are plain ASCII text files that may be created or edited using a text editor or word processor. Although HTML generating programs are commercially available, it is still common for a programmer to copy and edit a previously created HTML file using a plain text editor or word processor, in order to create a duplicate or near-duplicate of an existing web page.
As browsers have become more sophisticated, it is now relatively simple to display information from a plurality of sources in a single display. The display may include text, lists, tables, graphics, or a combination of these elements. In addition, the display may include multiple frames. A frame divides the screen into separate windows when an HTML source file is formatted and viewed by a browser. The divisions between frames may be difficult to detect. For example, a "frame web page" may include a frame (created by the owner of the web site) which surrounds a display generated by the web site of an unrelated party. Because a display may be generated from several different sources, it is difficult to determine how a particular region within a display is created. Thus, it may be difficult to find and copy a portion of an HTML file that generates a desired subset of the display.
Conventional web browsers provide a tool to view the source HTML documents. This is a valuable capability of a web browser that enables programmers to see how web documents are constructed in order to build similar documents. Nevertheless, the inventor of the present invention has recognized a drawback of these conventional tools. Conventional tools require that the user view and examine the entire document(s), the Java code, or both components which generate the web page. The conventional tools are of limited use to a programmer who wants to find the HTML or Java code which generates a small region within a large display. There remains a need, therefore, for an improved browser tool and method suitable for viewing text and graphics on the Internet.